The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Despite achieving the highest points climb, the Bahamas is “not satisfied” with its continued position near the basement of the Global Financial Centres Index 2012, a senior executive told Tribune Business last night .

Aliya Allen, the Bahamas Financial Services Board’s (BFSB) chief executive, said that while the Bahamas had climbed three spots in the ranking to 72nd out of 77 nations, as opposed to 75th last year, the Index failed to reflect “some of the realities” in this nation’s financial industry.

And, while the Bahamas still remained at the bottom of the pack when it came to international financial centres (IFCs), it did gain an honourable mention, the Index saying there was “a mixed picture with no significant moves apart from the Bahamas, which gained 22 points”.

Ms Allen told Tribune Business: “I think what was encouraging about it was the specific reference to the fact that although the players in the region were static, the Bahamas made some relatively large gains in comparison.

“But we will not be satisfied until we are not in the bottom. I do think there are encouraging signs, but we are definitely nor satisfied with where we are.

“Were we surprised by the results? I was encouraged that we made some gains. Was I shocked where we ended up? Not on the basis of last year, but I hoped we would have climbed further up the list than we have.”

The Index, put together by the Z/Yen Group with assistance from the Qatar Financial Centre, ranks financial centres according to five key ‘competitiveness’ criteria - people, business environment, market access, infrastructure and general competitiveness.

Ms Allen said it was unclear why the Bahamas was being ranked relatively poorly, and the areas it was seemingly falling down in were unknown. She suggested, though, that the problem might be perception rather than reality, with the former becoming the latter in the context of the Index.

Suggesting that the 2011 version, for example, may have overlooked the Bahamas’ various e-government initiatives, Ms Allen described the Index’s assertion that this nation was a ‘local specialist’ as “interesting”.

“I don’t think we’d agree with that. We’d like to think we have a bit more of a transnational impact than that,” she told Tribune Business.

“I would say that I think that might be perception that doesn’t reflect some of the realities of the Bahamas as a financial centre, and just what a strong financial centre we are. There are things we can do as a jurisdiction to affect this perception.”

Pointing out that the Bahamas was a well-connected financial centre, with both diverse and specialist skills, Ms Allen said both the BFSB and the Ministry of Financial Services had been investing in upgrading worker skills, with the former starting its foreign language courses.

“That’s going to be key wen they look at the Bahamas, that they perceive the skill is there to meet the global demand and competitive marketplace of the industry,”Ms Allen said.

“We have to be on the ball when it comes to turnaround time, we have to invest in infrastructure to make ourselves a competitive financial centre.

“As is fairly evident, we have made strides and done a lot in the last two years, but we have to continue to aggressively invest in processes and the business environment, and make it a lot more welcoming for international business and investors.”